PayBack!
by Carrie2sky
Summary: AU One-shot set in "Good ‘ol School Days" universe. Naruto is going to ‘payback’ his father in kind for his surprise party from October. Follow up from “Surprise”.


**PAYBACK!

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**Summary: AU in Good 'ol School Days universe. Naruto is going to 'payback' his father in kind for his surprise party from October. Follow up from "Surprise".

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**Disclaimer: Don't own sadly, wish I did.

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**Beta: MrsHellman

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Namikaze Naruto had been agonizing about a complex problem for four months now. Ever since his tenth birthday, when his dad, Minato, the Yondaime Hokage, surprised him for the younger blonde's birthday – well, giving him major grief was more like it – Naruto had been plotting his revenge; he knew he just _had _to get his dad back for that, but what was killing the him was how, what and where. His dad's 30th birthday **(1)** was coming up in just a couple of weeks and Naruto was running out of time to come with something to top what his dad had done to him. It had be really good and it had to be kept a secret, which wasn't going to be easy. It's hard to keep secrets from your father; especially when he's the Hokage, and slightly overprotective of his one and only son – which is completely understandable though. Naruto could not even count on his fingers_ and _toes how many times he'd been in danger because of his dad being the Hokage. It was quite scary actually . . .

Back to the point then; Naruto had talked to many adults about it – regarding his dad's birthday party that is – and it was only with the ones who he could trust to not go and blab to his dad about it, which included Iruka, Kakashi, Teuchi – being one of the man's best customers and all – and a few other Jounins that the he knew. So far, nothing had appealed to Naruto from their suggestions. Iruka actually had the nerve to tell Naruto that he should just forget this 'revenge' and have a nice, normal party for his dad. Yeah, right! NOT! Kakashi told him that it wouldn't be a good idea if Naruto valued his life, but the blonde had just rolled his eyes. He knew that revenge was a dish best served cold. Frustrated with the adult's answers, he went to his own age group, starting with his best friend, Uchiha Sasuke.

In all honesty he was expecting the raven to call him an idiot and leave it there, so when he got his answer he arched a brow. The raven had agreed that a surprise party was in order, but he wasn't sure about the payback part. Come on, that was the whole reason Naruto wanted to do this in the first place!

It seemed that _everyone_ was so afraid of the Yondaime's wrath that they wouldn't even dare to _think _about doing this to him, especially since the man was the Hokage. Come on, what was the big deal with that anyway? Naruto did not understand it; this was his dad they were talking about! He wouldn't hurt a fly, would he? Naruto however, was not deterred. He was determined to pull this off, even if he had to do it all by himself. However, it was driving him crazy as to how and what to do about it.

One day, while sitting in his room, his legs dangling off the edge of the bed, staring at the ceiling, a brilliant idea came to Naruto's mind. "I've got it!" he yelled to no one in particular. "Why didn't I think of this before?" he continued talking to himself out loud, showing some promising signs of schizophrenia. His face broke out into such a huge grin, that it could have split his face in two, leaving his jaw on the floor.

"YES! This is will be perfect!" He sat up and rushed out of the room. He had lots of work to do – lots of planning; oh yes . . . revenge is sweet.

* * *

Naruto jumped from rooftop to rooftop, it was his favorite way to travel, since it was the fastest way, and he wouldn't have to worry about going around people; he was in a hurry right now, more so than usual. He could easily just run along the street, but why do that, when he was a ninja – well, okay not quite officially a ninja – but what the hell, since he knew how to do it, he was going to do it. This was much more fun than walking or running as well! He loved the feel of the wind hitting his face as he jumped; the thrill of making it to the next rooftop, without falling, and the way it made him feel like he was almost flying. It was a wonderful feeling.

Naruto arrived shortly at the Uchiha house and after jumping down, he went up to the door and knocked with impatience he was sure no one could rival. He waited anxiously as he bounced on the balls of his feet. Finally, Sasuke answered and arched a fine brow as he saw the blonde ball of hyperactivity and endless energy. Damn, how was it possible for Naruto to function like that?

"It's about time, Teme!" Naruto half yelled as he put his arms on his hips and pouted while Sasuke rubbed his ear; he never would get used to the his friend's loudness. "I've got something to tell you!" Without waiting for an answer, Naruto grabbed Sasuke's wrist and dragged him down the hall and into the raven's room and then shut the sliding door.

"Naruto!" Sasuke complained at the rough handling and his friend's apparent rude entrance. "What's going on?"

Naruto put his finger to his mouth with a grin plastered on his face – as usual. "Shh, Sasuke. Not so loud. I don't want anyone to overhear this."

_He's one to tell me to be quiet?_ The raven thought bemusedly. "Don't worry, my dad is at work and my mom is outside in the garden. What's so urgent?"

The blonde broke into a wide smirk as he was about to tell the raven his idea. _Uh-oh,_ the Uchiha thought, as he looked at his friend's face, _that look is never a good sign. _

"Sasuke—" Oh great it started off with a sing-song voice, "—I've found the perfect way to get back at my dad for what he did to me for _his_ birthday." The raven tried not to roll his eyes as he heard this leave his friend's mouth; Naruto had been talking to him about this for months. They hadn't been able to come up with anything that Naruto liked and Sasuke was beginning to feel like it wasn't such a good idea. Plus, he didn't want to get into trouble when the Hokage found out about him being a part of it all; he'd most definitely pay for it. Naruto's dad could be really scary sometimes, especially when it came to things like Naruto getting himself into trouble and practical jokes, it made the raven shudder involuntarily.

"Just hear me out, Sasuke," Naruto began as he told his friend his whole plan, which took some time all the while Naruto using many gestures as he talked animatedly to the Uchiha. Sasuke had to admit that his friend had thought this through, there were a lot of details and he was impressed, but when he heard the ending, he shook his head with a frown between his dark brows.

"I don't know, Naruto. It's really impressive and all, but it's also kind of risky. I mean, what if it backfires? You know how your dad can get," the raven reminded his blonde friend while making a face. The raven sure knew . . .

"Everyone keeps telling me that, but it will be fine! It's his birthday," Naruto waved Sasuke's concern off dismissively with his hand. "He'll get over it. Anyway, I've got it all worked out, so don't worry. This will be the greatest." He grinned widely again, just thinking about it.

"Well, count me out. I don't not want to get into trouble with your father or my parents," the raven answered folding his arms across his chest with his eyes narrowed. This was a bad idea, a very bad idea, though . . . if everything worked out it could be quite amusing…he shook his head. This _was_ Naruto he was talking about.

"Oh come oo~n, Sasuke," the Naruto pleaded with his friend as he whined, which always irritated Sasuke to no end, though oddly he also found it hard to resist, why was that?

"No way! I told you I don't want to. If you want to pull a crazy stunt like this, you're on your own," he answered stubbornly, but he was starting to have second thoughts; Naruto was breaking down his resistance; it would quite funny, if the he managed to pull this crazy thing off; to see the look on the Hokage's face…it was tempting…

"But you helped dad with _my_ surprise party," Naruto whined again and stomped his foot childishly. Sasuke rolled his eyes at his friend's dramatics. Still, he did have a point. It was crazy really, what Naruto was proposing and this would definitely be overkill as far as revenge, because this was far beyond what Minato had _ever _done to Naruto, but then this would fit in with his friend's personality. Naruto was always doing things over the top. He _never_ did _anything _halfway.

"Okay, fine, I'll help you," he finally answered with a sigh; it's official, he's suicidal. "What do you want me to do?" Naruto whooped really loudly.

"Great! Then here's what we need to do first . . ." the blonde began and his infamous grin was now plastered on his face again.

* * *

A few evenings later, Minato and Naruto were eating their dinner together and the older blonde had been noticing that his son was acting strangely, more so than usual that is. Whenever Minato would walk by and Naruto was talking to someone, the younger of the two would immediately stop talking until Minato passed, or Naruto would avoid Minato altogether. Something was definitely going on, and it was beginning to worry the older blonde. Was his son sick? What was going on?

"You know, son," Minato began, as Naruto looked over at him, chopsticks in his mouth. "You seem very excited about something . . . almost nervous. Is something going on that I should know about?"

_Oh-no! He's on to me!_ Naruto thought in a panic but his outer didn't reveal his inner turmoil. _How did I give myself away?_ Laughing apprehensively, and rubbing the back of head, he answered his father: "N-no, Tou-san. Nothing's going on. Why do you ask?"

Minato sipped his tea and then answered, "Oh, I just noticed that whenever I come around, you stop talking to whomever you're talking to, or you disappear. It's like your trying to _hide _something from me." He pierced Naruto with a pointed look. The entire situation was probably not as serious for Naruto as it was for Minato, since the older thought that there was something horribly wrong with his son and it was making him worry that something was seriously wrong.

"You've noticed that, huh?" Naruto asked sheepishly. _I have to come up with an excuse!_ He thought hard and when he didn't come up with anything good he decided to just say something completely random. "Well, it's just that, I'm working on a . . . new . . . _jutsu_ to show you and it's a surprise!" He nearly laughed at his explanation.

"I see . . ." Minato didn't buy it, and he frowned as he realized that his son truly _was_ hiding something from him . . . he could feel the on/off switch for his over protectiveness turn on. "Well, I look forward to seeing it then," he answered, casually, going back to eating, deciding to drop the subject . . . for now.

_You will see, Tou-san, _Naruto grinned and then continued to eat his food.

* * *

Jiraiya happened to be visiting in the village a couple days later; Naruto had previously contacted him to come, telling the old man it was urgent (his father and Naruto kept in contact with the Old Toad Sage quite a bit) so he came by to see Naruto and Minato. He knew about Minato's upcoming birthday and since his student was turning thirty – something that you don't just pass over- he wanted to give his former pupil a hard time about it. When Naruto finally managed to get the white-haired Sannin alone, he told him about his plan and of course the old pervert laughed his ass off.

"You've got to me kidding me, kid! That's quite a plan you came up with! And you thought of this all by yourself?" The gray man was still laughing and wiped a faked tear away from underneath his eye. His face was red from all the laughing and Naruto couldn't help but shake his head in doubt. It was a wonder his dad was _smart _concerning the fact that his teacher acted like such an idiot the majority of the time.

"Don't sound so surprised, Ero-sennin," Naruto answered, slightly annoyed with the man's reaction and behavior. "Will you come or not then?"

Jiraiya ruffled Naruto's hair, serving to further annoy the blonde. "You could get into deep trouble for this, kid. I won't vouch for you either, but I'll be there, just to see your dad's face, and how he'll kill you for this. It's going to be priceless, but it's most certainly worth coming!"

"Thanks a lot, Ero-sennin," Naruto told him sarcastically and crossed his arms over his chest while making a face. "Maybe I shouldn't have told you," he grumbled, as the white-haired Sannin couldn't stop laughing and turned even redder in the face, finally rivaling a tomato. Naruto sighed and shook his head, which only fueled the older man's uncontrollable laughter.

* * *

Three days before Minato's 30th birthday, Naruto finally had everything in place to surprise his dad. He was quite pleased with himself on pulling this altogether by himself, though Sasuke had helped him some too. All the while, Naruto had to keep fending off his ever so curious father, who was still trying to figure out his son's strange behavior and it was driving him up the wall constantly. It wasn't an easy task, especially since Minato always had two ANBUs watching out for him ever since he mentioned the new jutsu training. Naruto wished he hadn't said that, for it seemed to make things worse for him. It was a standard procedure for Naruto's safety to have one ANBU watching over him, but two? He resented it greatly. Still, he managed to do what was needed, without being too suspicious to even the ANBUs and now, it was time to get things started. Knowing that ANBUs were watching him, Naruto went into an alleyway, and executed the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and took off. His goal was to disappear before the ANBUs knew which one was the real him.

One of the ANBU assigned to Naruto was Hatake Kakashi **(2)** and he watched as Naruto went into the alleyway, and saw him perform the jutsu. Puzzled by this, he went in closer to investigate. Taking a quick look around, he lifted his mask and exposed his Sharingan, to examine the now, multiple 'Naruto's' that were running around. Quickly spotting the 'real one', he replaced his mask and took off in pursuit, seeing that Naruto was heading out of the village and into the forest. He had to stop him quickly. Using the teleportation technique, Kakashi appeared right in front of the blonde. Said blonde was startled to say the least, he knew that the people within the ANBU were great when it came to spotting people and tracking people – no matter the situation – but why did they have to destroy his plan?

"Excuse me, Naruto, but this is as far as you go. You know the rules," he started, and reached out the grab him, but suddenly, 'Naruto' disappeared into a puff of smoke. "Damn! How did I lose him?" the silver-haired ANBU asked himself and slumped his shoulders. "I was sure I had the right one!" Cursing again, he exposed his Sharingan once again, but there was no sign of Naruto.

He was gone. Great. It wouldn't be fun telling Minato this . . .

* * *

After making a thorough search of the village, Kakashi could not find a trace of his sensei's son and deciding he couldn't put it off any longer, went to report this to the Hokage. The grey-haired ANBU disappeared and reappeared inside Minato's office. He gulped as Minato looked up with surprise. He really didn't want to tell the man what had happened, but if he didn't the young Hokage would have his head served on a silver plate for the rest of the ANBU force.

The blonde man in question knew he had assigned Kakashi to watch Naruto along with one of the other ANBU members and had a feeling right away that something was wrong. "Dog? What's going on?" he addressed the young man by his ANBU name as a frown appeared between the man's fine brows and it made the ANBU bite his lower lip; so not fun . . . it would be so not fun telling him. The man's reaction would be one out of fury as well as fear.

"I regret to inform you that I've lost your son, sensei. I'm so sorry," he said getting on one knee and bowing and bending his head so that he was nearly touching the floor. He looked at the floor and waited for the man in front of him to say something.

"You what!?" Minato exclaimed, standing up, knocking is chair over in the process. "How is it that a ten-year-old got away from you!?"

"I-I don't know, sensei," Kakashi admitted, as he looked up at the man thankful that the Hokage could not see his face. "He used Kage Bunshin no jutsu. I used my Sharingan and thought I had the real one, but it turned out I didn't."

"That kid is getting smarter all the time," the Yondaime muttered and looking up at Kakashi, he said, "Send out a squad of ANBU to track him down. He's been behaving very strangely lately and I think there's something wrong . . ." he rubbed his hands together nervously, which did not go unnoticed by Kakashi.

"Hai, sensei. I'll get right on it," Kakashi bowed once more and then stood up.

"Keep me informed," Minato told him, just before Kakashi disappeared. He sat down in his chair and let his head fall back. His son was missing.

His son was missing . . .

* * *

Naruto grinned as he jumped through the trees, heading to his intended destination, completely unaware of his dad's current state of mind. The only thing on his mind was this: his distraction worked! The ANBUs never knew that Sasuke had henged into 'Naruto' before executing his Kage Bushin no jutsu. He stopped and waited for his friend, whom he knew would be catching up with him any minute. He knew the raven was smart enough to get away without getting caught. All was going according to plan and it made him feel great inside, if he could fool the ANBUs he could probably fool a lot of other people, and he decided that his plan of revenge on his father was proof of that; being the son of the Hokage certainly had it's advantages.

Suddenly, Naruto heard his name being called as he turned and faced a replica of himself. "Yo, Naruto!" he greeted, and then with a puff of smoke, the 'Naruto' turned back into Sasuke.

"Did everything go well?" the blonde asked the raven.

"Yes, it all went according to plan. And I left some 'clues' for the ANBU as you wanted," Sasuke told him.

"Excellent," Naruto grinned widely. "This is going perfectly. Okay, let's get going and we'll leave some more clues as we going along."

"Right," Sasuke agreed as they took off once more through the trees. When they arrived at their intended destination, Naruto and Sasuke found Rookie Nine and some other people working on the party preparations.

"How is it coming?" Naruto asked Sakura, whom he left in charge.

"Going well. We'll be finished soon," she answered. She paused before adding; "You know, Hokage-sama is going to kill you for this."

"Why does everyone keep telling me that?" Naruto groaned in frustration. "Don't worry about it. Now make sure that everything stays hidden until my dad arrives here, got it?"

"Yes, Naruto, we know," Sakura answered as everyone went back to work.

Naruto turned to Sasuke. "Alright, Sasuke stay here with the others and finish the preparations. You know what to do when the ANBU arrives."

"Right," the raven nodded.

"Yosh! Phase one complete. Time for phase two!" With that, Naruto disappeared.

The ANBU squad did indeed find Naruto's clues and followed them right to his intended destination. What they found there was not what they had expected in the least however; they couldn't help but smile as they realized that the Hokage had one amazing son.

* * *

The next day, Minato was concerned that the ANBU squad he had sent out the day before hadn't returned. True, they may be still searching, but the team leader should have come back to report something, anything about his missing son. At the very least, they should have sent him a message. The over protective switch in Minato's brain was on high now. What in the world had happened to his son? Why did he leave the village? Did he run away? Had he been kidnapped? All these thoughts swirled inside of the Yondaime's mind, driving him insane. Unable to be patient any longer, he summoned a second squad of ANBU.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the masked nin addressed him.

"Go out and see if you can find any trace of the first group of ANBU, or my son and report anything you find back to me. And I mean _any_ kind of progress, even if it's negative, do you understand?" Minato commanded.

"Hai!" the team answered, bowed and left.

Minato turned his chair around and looked out the window, biting his lip in worry. _Naruto, where are you?

* * *

_

It was now the day of Minato's birthday, but was the last thing on the Hokage's mind right now. He was so wound up with worry over his son, his over protective switch on full blast, and none of the ANBU squad's he'd sent out returned or gave any message of any kind. Minato felt like they must have come up against some terrible foe, and that his worst fears were confirmed: Naruto had been kidnapped. Why there wasn't a ransom note, Minato didn't know, only that maybe whoever took his son just planned to kill him and be done with it. Deciding to take matters into his own hands, the Yondaime made the only logical decision he could in a situation like this: He assembled a team of five ANBU, 30 Jounin's and 20 Chuunins to accompany him on a personal rescue mission. He'd hopefully then find out what the hell was going on with the disappearances and more importantly, what had happened to Naruto. No one dared questioned their Hokage's actions, since everyone knew how he felt about his one and only son. Leaving a skeleton crew behind to guard the village, Minato and company took off. Biting his lip, Minato starting running along through the forest. He couldn't use his Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder god technique), or no one would be able to keep up with him, and as it was, they were having a hard time. He didn't like leaving the village so unprotected, but what choice did he have?

Shortly after they left the village, Minato ran into Kakashi, who was no longer wearing his ANBU uniform. _Strange…_

"Kakashi?" he asked, surprised and stopped dead in his tracks along with everyone else who was with him, and stared at the man before him with wide eyes. It had been over three days since he's last seen the silver-haired ANBU. "Where have you been? Where is everybody?" He demanded with desperation as Kakashi noticed this. He wondered if going through with this was such a great idea, he could get into serious trouble with his sensei for this.

"I've found your son," he said, not answering his teacher's other questions. "Follow me." He began to jump through the trees as Minato hurried to catch up with him, the others following as well. Kakashi's behavior was strange and it was only worrying him more than before.

"What the hell is going on?" he demanded again as Kakashi heard that his sensei's voice was unstable, which only meant he was extremely worried about his son's whereabouts. "Is Naruto alright?"

"You will see, sensei," was the only answer as he neared to their destination. Minato squinted, but he managed to see a waterfall in the distance, along with two very large statues. He recognized the place: _Shūmatsu no Tani_ – the Valley of the End. Why on earth were they going there? It wasn't exactly a place that one would come to visit, ever since the fight between Shodaime and Madara Uchiha. Jumping down to the ground, Minato followed Kakashi up the river and he noticed that it was eerily silent and the older blonde shuddered involuntarily. He could feel his heart pulsing in his chest and he bit his lower lip from time to time. Those who were with him appeared to be ready for anything.

Suddenly, he heard noise behind him, and he whirled around, prepared to fight whoever was there. "SURPISE!" Everyone had jumped out from behind their hiding places and the Hokage's eyes widened comically. "HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HOKAGE-SAMA!" they all shouted as a banner dropped out from either side of the statues and across the waterfall that read, 'Happy 30th! You're over the hill!' Tables appeared that had all kinds of food on it, along with a very large birthday cake that had a picture of Minato on it as well as the number 30. On another table, a mile high worth of presents lay, wrapped in all kinds of colors.

To say that the Hokage was stunned, would be an understatement. Kakashi's eye was a full 'n' at the sight of his sensei though inwardly, he wondered if he'd still have a job after this. Minato looked around and saw all his friends, and that even Jiraiya had made it, smirking and waiting for all hell to break loose. The Chuunins and Jounins, who had accompanied him were cheering, and he saw the ANBU he had sent out days before, were all standing around, cheering and offering him a happy birthday. Minato was speechless. In his shock, he found he could not form words. Kakashi, Jiraiya, and many others had been in on a surprise of this nature? This could only mean one thing: Naruto had to somehow be behind all of this. Speaking of which, the blonde in question finally came out from his spot and walked up to his dad, who was still speechless and in a state of shock; giving him a hearty pat on the back.

"Happy Birthday, Tou-san! Quite a surprise, ne?" he asked with a foxy grin. Minato still hadn't answered, so Naruto continued. "I told you I'd pay you back for what you did to me on my birthday, so—"

Minato finally came back to planet reality when he saw his son, unharmed, smirking at him, and comprehension hit him like a ton of bricks as to what the little scamp had done to him. Scaring him to death, making him think his son was lost, kidnapped or dead. Making him think all his people had disappeared, and putting the village in jeopardy. He finally lost it. Picking up his son by the shoulders, he held him up to his eye level and shook him slightly, exploding.

"NARUTO! Are you crazy!? You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Naruto winced; his dad could be pretty loud sometimes. He didn't have to wonder where he got his large lungs and loudness; his father. "I thought something terrible had happened to you, damn it! You're so reckless—"

Jiraiya watched the exchange with amusement, knowing this is how Minato would react. Sasuke watched with nervousness, wondering if his best friend would survive, everyone else watched and waited on tender hooks, the celebration on hold pending the outcome. Minato continued his rant, despite everyone watching. "I thought you had gotten lost! I thought you were kidnapped! I thought you were DEAD! I sent all these people looking for you, they didn't come back, and I find that you pulled a stunt like this, with all these people's involvement, just to surprise me for my birthday!? Kami, Naruto! What were you thinking!?"

Naruto didn't know what to say as he looked down and away from his father's angry face. He knew his father kind of had a point and a right to be angry with him. He also knew that Minato was saying this to him mostly because he was so worried about Naruto's safety. Perhaps the he _had _taken things a little too far, but it was quite fun as well, and even though his dad was worried and upset, the blonde knew he'd get over it soon enough as he would get into the presents and food – as well as company – and then further down the road, they could have a good laugh about it, but probably _a lot_ further down the road.

"G-gomenasai, Tou-san," he said quietly, looking back at his father once more, tears pricking at his eyes. "I just wanted to surprise you and have a little fun with you… "

Minato softened slightly at the look on his son's face and hearing his contrite words. He hated to admit it, but his son had been quite clever to pull this off, keeping all this a secret from him, outwitting the ANBU and going to this length to surprise him. He suddenly recalled the words Naruto had said to him at the end of the younger blonde's birthday, _"'Just wait until it's your birthday, Tou-san.'" _Though he didn't think Naruto would go this far just to 'pay him back.' The Yondaime suddenly caught sight of everyone staring at the pair, fearful that their Hokage was going to commit homicide on his son. Putting Naruto down, he knelt down and pulled Naruto into a tight hug, squeezing the living daylights out of his son.

"I'm glad you're safe," he whispered into his son's ear and lightly kissed Naruto's forehead. "We'll talk about this later," he promised straightening up again but unconsciously kept his arms around his son's shoulders as if protecting him from something. Naruto swallowed hard as he heard his father's words, but nodded as he turned around and faced everyone; his face was slightly red due to embarrassment at his father's display. His father giving him a quick kiss to the head only made it worse.

"Tou-san!" he grumbled.

"Alright everyone, show's over. Let the festivities begin!" Minato announced as everyone cheered as they realized that this wouldn't turn into a murder scene.

It really turned out to be a wonderful party in the end and everyone had fun. Jiraiya put in his two cents worth about Naruto's scheming and then drank too much sakē, hitting on all the women at the party, who in turn slapped the old man around and then some. They played games, ate tons of food, and Minato loved all his gifts, thanking everyone for being so generous. Naruto gave his gift last which was a set of new kunai along with ten free passes to Ichiraku's, which Minato was thrilled about and hugged his son for once again, earning him an embarrassed squeal from said son. When the party was over and everything was cleaned up, everyone slowly left, and headed back, leaving Naruto and Minato alone with a few people cleaning the place.

As the pair started to walk back towards the village, Naruto felt a sense of dread. Was his dad going to scold him now? Ground him for life? Take away his beloved ramen for a week? He also was worried that Minato might kill everyone that he had gotten involved to pull this party off. He trailed slightly behind his father, walking more slowly. Minato turned and looked back at his son as he noticed this and arched a brow.

"Naruto?" he called. His son looked up. "What's wrong?" he asked with a concerned frown and titled his head to one side in confusion as well as worry.

"I-I . . . well—I thought . . . you might be . . . mad at me," Naruto mumbled, kicking his sandal into the ground a bit, in a nervous manner, but Minato had heard him. "And, I don't want everyone to get into trouble because of me. It was all my idea, and I asked everyone to help," he added quietly, looking up at his dad with apprehension.

Minato sighed and beckoned his son to come up beside him, which he did slowly, and put his arm around his son's small shoulders.

"First off, let me assure that no one else is going to get into trouble, scolded maybe, not no worse than that," Minato winked at Naruto. "Secondly, I was very surprised by all of this, but I have to admit, you did a good job of pulling this together," the older blonde praised his son, who looked up at him, surprised. "I see that you put a lot of work and thought into this, it couldn't have been easy to keep this from me, and it was a very nice party," he paused here, and leaned down to Naruto's height, looking him in the eyes. "However, if you ever scare me like that again," he said in a deadly serious tone that made Naruto gulp, "you'll be grounded for life, I'll take away your ramen forever, and you can forget about becoming the Hokage," he smirked evilly at him, a serious look on his face.

Naruto gaped at him in surprise. "You're serious?" he gasped. His dad didn't answer. "You wouldn't! You wouldn't dare!"

Minato just gave him a knowing look and turned around and resumed walking, leaving Naruto behind. The blonde couldn't tell if his dad was joking or not. It was times like this that Naruto wished he were a good reader of body language and tone.

When Minato was a good distance ahead, Naruto decided to run after him, shouting at his father with a distinct whine in it, "You're joking, right, Tou-san? You have to be, come on, tell me!" His voice was so loud it could be heard all way back to the village, while Minato had the biggest grin plastered on his face. _Now, we're even._

**THE END**

**(1) **I changed Minato's age to fit the story, even though he would probably be slightly older than 30 when Naruto was ten.

**(2) **I'm not totally sure if Kakashi would still be in ANBU, but I made it so he was anyway.

**AN: This is just a ONE-SHOT sequel to "Surprise" in honor of Minato's birthday. Hope you enjoyed this. It may be borderline on the unrealistic in some parts, but hey, its my story and I can write it this way. If you're wondering why Minato was clueless about his birthday, well, let's just say that he's blonde, (no offense, I am dark blonde myself) he's busy being the Hokage, and though he knew his birthday was coming up, he just thought Naruto and company were going to 'surprise' him with just a normal party. His over protectiveness kicked in over Naruto's behavior and the rest is history. If you don't like that, then why did you bother to read this? And a big thanks to MrsHellman for all her help! She gave me the title and location for the party! Thanks, hon! And I have to thank my husband who gave me a direction for this story.**

**Draw your own conclusion: Minato and Naruto's practical jokes are getting out of hand. They have run out of people to play pranks on and are looking for someone new to target. If you review, then they won't play one on you! Draw your own conclusion.**


End file.
